At the time, Martinessi’s feature was the first film from Paraguay to be screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it would scoop up the Alfred Bauer Prize for opening up “new perspectives on cinematic art", as well as the award for best actress.

Now, Martinessi has notched up another big win, taking out this year’s Sydney Film Festival prize on Sunday night with a tender portrait of female interactions, class struggle and the many iterations of oppression, set in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay.

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“I’m very happy that this happened at this moment and I feel that any visibility we have for Paraguayan cinema [and] Paraguayan stories will always help at home to make our authorities conscious of how important it is to show [these films],” he says.

The prize was awarded by a five-person jury, chaired by Australian filmmaker Lynette Wallworth, who emphasised Martinessi’s ability to slowly peel back individual and societal facades.

Angy, played by Ana Ivanova (left), and Chela, played by Ana Brun.

“The film … carried us with restraint and confidence into a world still shielded by entitlement even as its structure crumbles,” Wallworth said on Sunday night.

"It revealed a delicately unfolding courage to release what we cling to, even when it is all we know, and let change come - within ourselves and within this collective frame that we build together, that is our society."

The Heiresses follows the journey of sixty-something Chela, played by Ana Brun in a stellar debut performance, whose partner of more than 30 years Chiquita, played by Margarita Irun, is jailed for fraud after the couple’s mounting debts see them selling off family heirlooms in a bid to stay afloat.

Suddenly, the seemingly cloistered Chela is forced to fend for herself again.

Chela soon finds herself chauffeuring Asunción’s wealthy matriarchs, who regularly meet to play canasta, when she meets the much younger Angy who inspires in her a new energy.

Martinessi stresses that The Heiresses is a film about relationships - so crucial was the dynamic between the characters that he built his cast from the ground up with Brun.

“She needed to feel, or be able to feel, certain emotions with each character so ... this poor actress went through the the process of casting each person that had a relationship with her in the film in order to make it more organic for her.

“In her case, it was very honest feeling, you know, she needed to feel things for everybody on set.”

While few stories from Paraguay ever receive the kind of global attention Martinessi's now has, the universality of Chela's struggle, reflected in that honesty, has struck a chord with audiences around the world, but Martinessi says there's a reason it has particular resonance in Australia.

"One of my concerns, when I knew the film was going to be shown here, was I wanted to know how Australians relate to oppression; this feeling of being trapped that for me is key to an understanding of the film.

"Oppression sometimes is a government, sometimes it’s in a relationship, sometimes it’s the claustrophobia of living in a social class.

I feel that we as human beings feel - especially it happened to me after a long dictatorship - that we are free, you know, we think: ‘Oh the dictator is finally gone, we are finally free’ and it doesn’t work that way.

"Sometimes the feeling of oppression from a president in a country permeates society; in the institutions; in schools; in the family, so it’s there, it’s underneath the skin of the whole society, so I think the word ‘freedom’ is a lot more complex."

The Heiresses will receive a general cinema release through Palace Films in Australia.

All the winners from this year’s Sydney Film Festival

The Sydney Film PrizeMarcelo Martinessi for The Heiresses

Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian DocumentaryBen Lawrence for Ghosthunter

The Sydney-UNESCO City of Film AwardWarwick Thornton

Dendy Awards for Australian Short FilmsAlyssa McClelland for Second Best

Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films — Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best DirectorTom Noakes for Nursery Rhymes

Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films — Yoram Gross Animation AwardAndrew Goldsmith and Bradley Slabe for Lost and Found

Event Cinemas Australian Short Screenplay AwardTyson Mowarin for Undiscovered Country